The responsible committee in the House of Representatives can get “everything that they are legally entitled to, I don’t care,” Trump wrote. The president had previously opposed a vote on releasing the documents. Critics accuse Trump of wanting to cover up his own possible involvement in the Epstein affair. The 79-year-old denies any wrongdoing.
There have been demands for months – including from parts of Trump’s Republican Party and his MAGA movement (Make America Great Again) – to publish all files on the Epstein scandal. During the election campaign, Trump promised to publish all investigation files. After his swearing-in in January, he only released a few documents that were of little significance.
The House of Representatives wants to pass a bipartisan motion this week to force the government to release all Epstein files. The chairman of the congressional chamber, Republican Mike Johnson, has promised a vote on the proposal. In addition to the Democrats, many Republicans also want to vote for the documents to be released.
“Some ‘members’ of the Republican Party are being ‘taken advantage of,’ and we can’t let that happen,” Trump wrote on Truth Social on Sunday. The Epstein affair is just a “trap” and the Democrats want to distract from the “great success” of his Republicans on a number of political issues.
The internal party dispute among Republicans over their stance on the Epstein files had recently come to a head. At the weekend, Trump broke with his long-time supporter Marjorie Taylor Greene – long one of the most famous faces of the MAGA movement – because the right-wing lawmaker is campaigning for the release of the files.
Trump denies having close ties to Epstein. However, recently published emails and documents suggest the opposite. Epstein wrote in an email that Trump “knew about the girls.” He also spent “hours” with abuse victim Virginia Giuffre. In addition, numerous videos and photos from earlier years show the two millionaires together.
Convicted sex offender Epstein was found dead in his New York prison cell in 2019 while awaiting another trial. According to authorities, he committed suicide. According to the investigation, Epstein had abused underage girls and young women for years and passed them on to celebrities.
Many US citizens and right-wing influencers suspect that the former financial investor was murdered to prevent him from coming forward against prominent accomplices. The Epstein affair is one of the few issues on which part of the otherwise loyal base opposes Trump.
Meanwhile, the president is trying to direct suspicion toward the Democrats. On Friday, he called on the Justice Department and the FBI to investigate Epstein’s ties to former President Bill Clinton and “many other people and institutions.” Justice Minister Pam Bondi then immediately ordered an investigation.
